Bloody Neighbours
by Shinora1996
Summary: Alfred Jones is like any teenager. He ignores his twin, fights with his brother, falls in love... The Jones family has, after moving a lot, finally settled. In the meantime, their neighbour tries to evict them to claim the property. When he finds out more about the family, property is the last thing he cares about and switches to drastic plans. Human(ish) AU, Ger/Fem!Ita and others
1. Prologue: Silhouettes

[DISCLAIMER]: Hetalia characters (altered or not) belong to Himaruya Hidekaz.  
Story is based on a children's book by Paul van Loon.  
OCs (Eric Jones, Rose Kirkland, Lawrence Tennant, and others) belong to me.

Warnings: (To some extent) language, blood and homosexual relationships (Duh)

Initial couples: Germany/Fem!Italy

Human names used. Fem!Italy is Vanessa.  
The Netherlands is Abel  
Belgium is Judithe  
Luxembourg is León

* * *

Hello, my dear reader. This story was originally written for an English assignment. Our teacher told us to write a fictional story about anything, in which you were allowed to use characters and storylines from existing works. I have written this together with **Elise-san** here on ff, so please be sure to check her profile as well.

**[NOTE]: Yes, I have actually handed this in.**

~o~o~o~o~o~

Prologue

Sheffield, England, 2:24 am, 10-26-2004

Sirens and blue flashing lights broke the peace of the full moon night as the fire truck hurried down the streets of a small village in Yorkshire, England. As soon as they were at the spot, the fireman hurried out, preparing to extinguish the fire that was lighting the autumn sky. An old, isolated house was ablaze, destructing red, orange and yellow arms grabbing every bit of what it could reach and swallowing it. The house was all captured in a warm orange glow, making it evident the fire had already been going on for quite a while before the firemen had arrived. Why hadn't they called earlier?

"Hurry up, men!" One of the firemen shouted. The team worked hard, trying their best to ignore the crowd gaping at the burning house. Those people didn't even try to move out of the way. They were just standing there as though they didn't care in the slightest about the burning house.

"Excuse me, Ma'am. Are the owners of this house still in there?"

"I hope so!" The woman shouted back, and stared up the building again.

Say what? She _hoped_ the people were still in there? He hoped he had misheard it and just continued his work. With the lots of burning wood and the risk of collapse it was far too dangerous to go in anyway.

As they finally managed to control the fire, all firemen wondered about the same thing. It took long, very long to finally put the fire out and dipping the village in the dark of the night again. "Poor people." A fireman said to his colleagues. "They've got nothing left now."  
Much to their surprise, the crowd started cheering and clapping. Some even hugged or kissed each other. Totally startled by this reaction, the fireman decided to ask another woman in the crowd. Someone who might just be sane. "Excuse me, ma'am?"

"Yes?" She responded, clearly happy.

"Why is everyone so happy? Those people lost their house- and everything!"

The woman's cheerful smile quickly turned into a serious, glaring grimace. "They were monsters, sir. Vampires, werewolves, zombies and God knows what. Monsters hungry for our blood."

The man could only stare at her in disbelieve. Had this woman gone completely off her path? Had everyone here gone off their path?! Or was there something else going on? He looked past her, just in time to see the silhouette of five figures- four people and one very big dog- fleeing into the night as fast as they possibly could.

~o~o~o~

Thank you for reading this.  
Please leave me a review if you liked it, didn't like it, hated it or if you've got any tips for me to improve. Especially the latter is much appreciated.


	2. Keeping up with the Joneses

Halkirk, Scotland, 7:49 pm, 03-18-2005

By now it was March. Four months, three weeks and two days later, and the sadness over losing their old home was almost forgotten. It had happened so many times before through the years that one would say they should be getting used to it by now.

In nearly five months, they had forgotten about their once again burned down house and settled into their new house in a quiet village in Scotland. So far no one in their new neighbourhood had any suspicion about them. Even though from time to time their different behaviour caused some rumours, no one in the small town could guess they had any relations to the burned down house in Sheffield months prior.

Right now, the eldest son in the family, Alfred F. Jones was still peacefully asleep. Aside from having his house burned quite often, he was pretty much like any other teenager. He had gold-ish dirty blonde hair which had one strand always sticking straight up in the front. He called it his antenna. He wore glasses because his eyesight was poor. He had a twin brother, Matthew, who looked very similar to him. He also loved watching movies.

It was still early in the evening, which was like early in the morning to Alfred with his day-night schedule turned around. Therefore he was still asleep in the coffin he had for a bed. This was as peaceful as anyone would ever have the luck of seeing him because seconds later, a loud noise came blasting from another room, causing the boy to be startled awake and quickly sit up, banging his head against the lid of his coffin.  
"Fuck!' He shouted out in pain. Gritting his teeth and hissing profanities, he opened the lid with one hand and held his painful forehead with the other.  
"That damned dog!" He yelled at no one in particular. Many more colourful words followed after this, but Alfred could hardly hear his own voice over the sound of the music. He stood up growling. He stumbled, gripped his head in pain and cursed loudly. The noise was only making things worse.

"I've had it with that dude!" He shouted and stormed out of his room, slamming the door behind him. The teenage vampire went down the stairs of his room in the small tower-like extension of the house. He threw the door to his brother's room open to complain once again. Upon opening the door, Alfred's hair waved back, fluttering on the wind the music caused.  
"Eric!" Alfred screamed over the rough guitar-solo. "Eric, you useless heap of shit! Turn that junk off! Now!"

The other one, dressed in ripped jeans and a leather jacket ignored his brother. Alfred gritted his teeth and decided to do it for him. He pulled out the plug of the speakers, immediately cutting the music off with a few sad cracks. The other turned around, glaring at his brother. "Keep your filthy hands off my stuff, trash." Eric sneered.  
He wasn't the type of guy to mess with. He was tall, strong, and intimidating. Eric was someone who did everything to stand out in a crowd. He had both ears pierced five times, and two black rings through his eyebrow. His hair was always dyed in one colour or another, but right now, it was honey blonde. The right side of his hair had four cornrows that came together in a small tail at the back and did not have the artificial colour of the rest that was combed to the other side. That was the only way to see his natural near-black hair colour.

Aside from that, Eric didn't seem to enjoy wearing t-shirts, so the small ring decorating his left nipple was nearly always on full display. He also had quite a deal of body hair, which was yet another thing that showed the many differences between him and his two brothers.

The one thing Eric and Alfred did have in common was a fiery temper. This type of behaviour did not go well with Alfred's obstinate personality, hence they often fought.

"Then turn down that noise! Geez, do you always have to play that sound pollution when I'm still asleep?!"  
"What sound pollution?"  
"That shit you call music. I can't stand it, and I can't stand you either!"  
"If you can't stand me, then piss the hell off!" Eric growled the last words and jumped at his brother. Alfred was just too late to dodge and was knocked onto the floor. He winced, but jumped up immediately after. The two kicked and threw each other out of the room, barking, biting and clawing at one another.

At that time, completely ignored by the two, a third presence was rudely awakened. "Not again…" Matthew whined while he pushed up the lid of his coffin. "Why do they always have to be like this…?" The lad was currently dressed in white, long-sleeved pyjamas, with a red maple leaf on the front. He had found it in a shop once many years ago, and he thought it was cute. His hair was very much the same colour of gold-ish dirty blonde as his brother's, but it was longer, shoulder length, and wavy. It was a little messed up from sleeping and had one particular strand of hair that stood out in a curl that dangled in front of his face.

He sighed and reached to find his glasses, after which he stumbled out of his 'bed' and out of the door. He found his two brothers fighting just outside of Eric's room. Matthew bit his lip. Granted, he didn't show his feelings very often due to his silent nature, but it truly upset him when his brothers fought. Aside from it being depressing to see they didn't get along, it also was really annoying.

"Guys!" Matthew tried to draw their attention, but his voice was too soft to be heard over the shouting and growling. "Calm down, please. You'll get each other killed one da-whaah!" Before realising, he was grabbed at his arm by Eric and rammed against his twin brother with a huge force. The two fell onto the ground, temporarily knocked out.

Eric crossed his arms and shook his head. "You two need to cool down a little." The rebellious teenager grabbed the two vampires by their collar and dragged them along. He grinned widely.

"Wait! Eric!" The twins whined and shouted, but their brother seemed unaffected by their pleading.  
Eric threw the door open and kicked the lid off Matthew's coffin. "Why don't you two take a nap?"

"NonononoNO!" Alfred and Matthew shouted. With great force, Alfred was thrown into the coffin. He moaned a little, just before getting Matthew thrown right on top of him a second later.

"Aaah!" He shouted as his ribs were crushed by the sudden weight of his twin brother.  
"Sorry." Matthew said, clearly in pain as well.

"Bye, bye." Eric said mockingly before placing the lid back on the coffin, trapping the two inside in a too small space. "Eric, you fucking asshole! Let me out of here!" A now muffled Alfred yelled. "You can't keep us locked up here! I'm not done with you, you bucket of piss!" But Eric was already gone.  
"Oh, just great!" Alfred growled. "I was totally about to kick his ass in there! But noooo. You just had to step in and make me look bad!" Alfred tried to kick the lid off the coffin with what of his leg he could still move.

"Don't shout Alfred. I'm right here…" Matthew wined "And please stop kicking me!"  
"I'm not kicking you. I'm trying to get out!" Alfred yelled, hurting poor Matthew's sensitive ears once again.  
"Well it's not working, so stop it! You're hurting me!" Tears started to well up in Matthew's eyes. Sure, he was used to pain, but this was very, very uncomfortable.  
Alfred sighed when he felt Matthew trembling. "Matt are you crying? Geez you're such a cry-baby. We'll be out of here in no time you'll see." He tried to pat Matthew's head, but gave up on raising his arm soon enough.  
"I'm sorry Alfred…"

Downstairs in the kitchen, still unaware of the fight upstairs, was Vanessa, the mother of the household. She was cooking her favourite pasta this evening, so she couldn't have been in a better mood. Vanessa loved food. Especially Italian food and out of all Italian foods, she loved pasta the most. Her boys upstairs where being rather loud by now, but it didn't really worry her a lot. They were just playing nicely as they always did, right? Vanessa smiled to herself. Not a second in her life had she regretted taking the three in.

She looked up when she heard the bell ring. She shot a quick look at the boiling water and then hurried to the front door, her long black dress fluttering behind her.

In the doorway stood her only neighbour, a man who looked like he was 50, maybe 55 years old. He had a stern looking face underneath a thinning head of dark grey curls. His clothes seemed to make him look older than he actually was. Above all, the man looked very, very angry. "What is the meaning of this outrageous commotion?! Do you have any idea what time it is! You can take from me lady: if this doesn't stop I will call the police!" The man practically shouted in Vanessa's face. "And then that dog of yours! Yesterday that monstrous beast snuck into my backyard and killed one of my chickens! The run was one bloodbath and the poor animals were all terrified, not to mention dirty!"

"But, mister Tennant…we don't have a dog, do we? I'm quite sure we don't…" Vanessa wondered to herself.

Lawrence Tennant was about to comment on that, when Ludwig stepped in behind Vanessa. "Please stop yelling at my wife. Do tell me what seems to be the matter."

Tennant scowled inwardly but instead of giving the same talk once again he simply shouted: "Could you please stop that noise!"

"Of course. ERIC! QUIET!" He shouted towards the staircase. His voice was heavy deep and terrifying.

It took a few seconds, but then the music actually started to quiet down, and eventually ceased.

Tennant sighed in relief, though it was clear he wasn't going to leave it at that. Just when he opened his mouth to make another comment, but different distracting sounds came from upstairs.

"Matt! Stop whining. We've been through this before. It's not that bad." The shouting came along with the sound of creaking wood. "Alfred, stop moving. It hurts! Aah!" A second voice begged.  
"Oh, would you just stop whining?"

Mr. Tennant looked at the parents with big eyes. "What… what was… who are… what have you…" He started to back away.

"Oh those are our sons Mr Tennant…" Vanessa told him. Before she could finish, Tennant had already interrupted her. "I do not care anyway. Just keep your kids quiet and- Are you even listening?!" He shouted, but turned around and went back home before Vanessa thought about looking back at the man instead of the staircase.

"Well, that was strange." Ludwig told his wife. "Now the boys. Boys! What did you do this time?" He started stomping up the stairs while his wife hurried after him.

"We're in here!" The sound came from Matthew's room.

Ludwig followed the sound of Matthew's voice and stepped inside the room. He stopped and looked around in confusion. "Guys?" He tried.

"In here!" He heard Alfred's voice coming from Matthew's coffin, which was currently tightly sealed by several nails. "What are you doing in there?" He asked the twins in a stern voice.

"That asshole you make me call my brother locked us up! Get us out of here!"

Ludwig sighed when he heard his wife come in. "Luddy? Where are the boys?"

"In here." The twins said in unison.

"…Why?" Vanessa asked Ludwig in return.

"Apparently, Eric locked them up in there."

"You bet he did!" Alfred added.

Vanessa's face dropped. So her dear sons had been fighting and were even locking each other up now? That was enough. They were going to make up right now! Or at least Eric was going to get those two out of that coffin. That would be a good start. She turned around, marched trough the hallway and into the culprit's room. Said culprit was currently sitting behind his laptop. "Eric! What did you do to your brothers?" Vanessa demanded.  
"Locked them in the coffin so they'd shut up." Was the simple answer.  
"Eric…" Eric had returned to his laptop and didn't respond. "Eric!"  
"What!?" Eric said with an irritated tone. He realized his mistake when he turned around and saw the look on his mother's face.  
"G-go make up with your brothers right now!" Vanessa shouted, wiping away a tear with her sleeve.

"Mom hey, mom, don't cry okay!" Eric started panicking and ran up to his mother. "I'm sorry alright! So just stop crying…" Vanessa nodded and hugged her very uncomfortable son.

"Well… okay, fine I'll let the bastards go…"

Vanessa smiled and clapped her hands. "Yay!" Her long dark curls jumped around her shoulders as she hopped up and down.

Ludwig looked up when he heard footsteps coming his way. Eric stomped into the room scowling. He walked over to the coffin and started pulling the nails out with his bare hands. When he was finished, the lid was thrown off and Alfred jumped at Eric's throat immediately. "You fucking asswipe!" He had already raised a fist at his brother but his twin stopped him just in time. He held him tightly around the waist and pleaded him to calm down.

"Alfred!" Ludwig yelled. "No more fighting! The two of you, apologize! And apologize to Matthew too for dragging him into this. Again." Both boys scowled.  
"I'm sorry for locking you two in a coffin." Eric said reluctantly.  
"Sorry for calling your music shit." Alfred said with a sigh.  
Both of them looked away while making their apologies.  
"And?" Ludwig asked.  
"Sorry for dragging you into the fight, Matthew." They said in unison.  
"Good." Ludwig said. "Now. I say it's about time for dinner." He looked at his wife.  
"Dinner?" Vanessa thought for a moment. "My pasta!" She exclaimed before running back to the kitchen.

When Ludwig reached her she was sulking over a pan with contents that vaguely resembled pasta, but then in one big clot. "Dinner will be a little later..." She whined. She pouted at her husband.  
"That's fine dear." He smiled and gave her a soft peck on the lips. "Do you need any help?"  
Vanessa nodded, still sad.

No matter how oblivious to the world she could be at times, Vanessa was the best wife a man could wish for, according to Ludwig. She was sweet, cute, happy and she could light up the mood like a thousand candles. She was the most beautiful of both the living and the un-dead.

* * *

Grumbling because of being ignored and left outside, Tennant stomped back to his home. It was ridiculous how Vanessa had just flat out ignored him after hearing the noise from upstairs. Didn't she have any manners?

As always, Tennant sat down at his desk and settled the small mirror in front of him. With the lack of someone to talk to him after his wife had left him, he had spent the past ten years talking to his reflection, just the way he was now. "Isn't it just utterly rude?" He asked. His reflection nodded as he did. "Who do they think they are, coming into this peaceful neighbourhood and making so much noise?"  
His reflection listened patiently.  
"What was that lie? What does she mean 'we don't have a dog'? I saw that foul beast myself! On multiple occasions. It was huge! They must be trying to avoid paying the dog licensing fee or something. It killed my chickens! Can't they at least put that thing on a leash?"

Once again, his reflection listened patiently. That was the advantage of talking to your reflection rather than your wife: your reflection never disagreed. Your reflection never argued, or told you to spend less time trying to find a way to get the property next to their house and pay more attention to her.

The man sighed deeply. "Why did they have to buy that house? Just why?" He calmly told his reflection. "Two more months, and I would have been allowed to claim it for my own. The only reason I bought this house in the first place is so that I could get this large piece of land next to it, but no. That house had to be uninhabited for at least ten years." He grunted in annoyance. "I was this far away from my dream house." He showed his reflection a tiny gap between two fingertips. "This far away. But if I can evict them within half a year, I won't have that waiting period anymore and I can claim it anyway." He smiled at that realisation.

He straightened his spencer and looked into the mirror again with a superior look in his eyes. "You're right. You should have a closer look at that family. There's something not right about them, I am sure of it."

Tennant went to his bedroom. It looked small because of all the mess everywhere but that didn't bother him in the least bit. It was one of the many things his wife used to complain about when she was still with him. Piles of clothes were stacked everywhere inside and outside of drawers.  
After searching through each and every single pile of clothes in his wardrobe, Tennant found his black hoody and matching black trousers.

"Perfect." He said. He quickly put on his outfit and went to the window. On the other side of the street lived the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. He didn't know her first name but he knew that her surname was Kirkland and that she lived alone with her younger brother. He looked at her through his telescope and he softly talked to her. "Don't worry, dear. I will chase them away for you. You don't have to worry that those freaks will disturb this perfect neighbourhood."

He then took his torch and Swiss army knife. He admired himself in the big mirror on the wall of his bedroom before heading out. It was almost dark so he had to hurry up.

Sneaking through his own front garden he leaped over the bush and continued his way across his neighbours' lawn. The house was exactly the same as his. It was a big detached house with some sort of tower on the left corner of the top floor. The window on the ground floor was low and very wide. As always, the family appeared to have the curtains drawn. Luckily for him, there was a small opening between the deep red velvet curtains which allowed him to look into the living room.

It was entirely dark inside and this made it difficult for the man to see what was going on there. He squinted his eyes a bit to make out the shapes a little more clearly. He could now see the entire living room, which, just like in his house, stretched from the front to the back of the house.

At first he hadn't noticed but he just realized that he could see the teenage boy he had seen earlier. The young man with the leather jacket and the ripped jeans sat slouched on the couch. His mother, the skinny woman with the ridiculously long hair, was standing in front of him and apparently scolding him. Tennant could barely hear the conversation through the glass window.

"That kind Mr Tennant from next door came here to complain, Eric." Vanessa said. One could easily tell she was doing her very best to be severe but the trembling in her voice and body language betrayed she couldn't be mad at her son.  
The teenager didn't respond.  
"He said one of his chickens has been killed and eaten. Do you know anything about that?"  
Again, Eric didn't respond.

Tennant didn't understand. Why was she scolding her son? Maybe the dog was his responsibility. He didn't know what exactly was going on as he couldn't hear the exact words.

"Eric. What have I told you? What if they find out? I don't want to have to fear for our lives again. It hasn't even been half a year and you've already managed to endanger our identity. We all have to do our best to keep this a secret for as long as possible."  
"Yeah, yeah, I get it. No more messing with that cranky bloke's chickens."  
"Good boy. Now go and get your brothers. They're taking awfully long." Her mood had swung back to its cheerful nature in just a few seconds. It was almost scary. Mr Tennant shifted to a more comfortable position. He had to keep watching them and not miss a single thing.

* * *

Alfred was once again sitting on the windowsill, back against the one side, foot against the other and one leg dangling out, in the room all the way upstairs. The eldest of the twins always sat at his window at this particular time of the day. This wasn't just a habit he had developed for no good reason. The older vampire twin had discovered that there was a teenager living across the street who lived together with his sister. He also went jogging every evening at this time.

Alfred secretly watched him leave and return. He didn't know what he liked so much about the teenager living across the street, but he looked nice. Maybe it was that slightly messy pale blonde hair. It might also be the light freckles that were dotted all over his nose and cheeks. It could be those grass green eyes or that stern but yet shy look in his eyes, or maybe, just maybe, he just was very handsome.

Alfred didn't know what exactly attracted him to the teenager but what he did know was that he wouldn't mind getting to know him better. In the time he had spent with Vanessa and Ludwig, he had been through more of those distant crushes. They usually went again with time, and ever since Eric had also joined them, he wasn't bored anymore anyway.  
On the other side of the street the slender teenager put his earphones on and hung his mp3-player on the side of his jogging trousers.

"Hey, Al. Mom says…." Eric cut himself off in mid-sentence. "Ah, Al. For real? Are you staring at the guy? That's fucking gay."  
"Oh, shut up, overgrown Chihuahua." Alfred hissed, revealing his sharp fangs for a brief moment.  
Eric narrowed his eyes. "Don't make me throw you into your coffin again, batty-brother."  
"Bite me."  
"With pleasure!" Eric growled and jumped in his brother's direction, only to be grabbed by his collar. He squeaked, as the collar nearly choked him.  
This time it was his father, Ludwig, who had stopped him. "Eric, Alfred. Behave yourselves. Now get downstairs." The tall blonde vampire released his son from the iron grip, allowing him to walk away. Alfred quietly followed his brother downstairs, closely followed by his father.

* * *

Still carefully hidden outside the window, Tennant kept looking into the house hoping to see anything abnormal. It was really starting to get dark now, but the light of the television made it easier to see his neighbours.  
He did notice something when Matthew entered the room after everyone else. He was holding five bottles. Two of these were half litre red wine bottles and two were Coca-Cola bottles. Strangely enough, the Cola wasn't for the twins as he first expected, but for Eric and Vanessa. Strange. Were two youngest old enough to drink?  
Tennant couldn't believe his eyes either when Ludwig, Alfred and Matthew all appeared to take a whole bottle for themselves. What confused him even more was that they all put their own bottles to their mouths. The liquid didn't seem like wine, though. It was too thick for that. No, it seemed more like…blood! They were drinking blood!

"Oh, God!" He whispered to himself. "Please tell me that is tomato juice!"

But Tennant's suspicion was confirmed when he took a closer look at the labels: AB+ for Ludwig, 0+ on Matthew's bottle, and B- for Alfred.  
Ludwig licked some of the red liquid off his lips.

Fangs. That was all Tennant could think about after spotting Ludwig's. That guy really was a vampire.

His thoughts were suddenly shattered when Vanessa opened the curtains. He ducked below the window, losing sight of what was going on inside. It was completely silent for a minute until a long and frightening howl suddenly came from nowhere. That sound…it made his blood run cold. It was as though the temperature had just dropped far below zero and a terribly unnerving feeling took over. He shivered.  
Just when he started to wonder if it was safe to look back inside again, a gigantic animal leaped out of the open window, right over his head. The animal threw its head back and once again howled at the full moon.

Tennant gaped for air, making a sound that was just loud enough to draw the beast's attention. It abruptly turned around to glare straight into his eyes. This triggered the, what was now revealed to be wolf, to show its teeth as he growled. It was a gigantic nearly black wolf with pinning dark eyes.

Vanessa tilted her head. "What's wrong, boy?" She asked, wondering what was causing the wolf's distress.

Just then Tennant jumped up and stumbled away, half tripping and overcome by fear.  
The wolf barked once. It was a terrifying sound.  
Panting and desperate, Tennant tried his best to get away, but his entire body was quivering and he had no strength. He feared for his life.  
Sadly for him, the wolf had other plans for him. The majestic animal leaped, aiming its teeth for the intruder's leg.

"Eric, no!" Vanessa shouted.  
Just in time, Alfred, Matthew and Ludwig jumped through the open window and grabbed their animal by the spiked collar it wore. It gave a shriek, missing the intruder's leg, but just managing to rip off a piece of his trouser.

The man stumbled over the bush, back onto his own lawn and stumbled inside. He shut the door behind him, still panting and his eyes grew to the size of dinner plates. "Wha-wha-what on earth was that monstrosity?! A wolf of all things?! Those people are insane!" He shouted at his reflection in the mirror on the kitchen door.

~o~o~o~

Say hello to the Joneses! :D I hope youve got an image now of everyday life in the family.

Please feel free to leave a review if you feel like it.


	3. Curiosity killed the cat

The next morning in a house across the street, a teenage boy called Arthur woke up to the early sunlight. Without any form of complaint, he stretched and got up, even though it was Saturday.

Arthur's family came from London, but he now lived together with his 24-years-old sister Rose. Because his mother had died in childbirth, and his father, the drunken bastard, had just disappeared one day, they were the only two left. He couldn't even remember what they looked like anymore, but Rose could. She cursed the fact she looked like their father in everything, except for the eyebrows. Only Arthur seemed to have gotten those from their father. That being the only thing that proved he was indeed his father's child, also Arthur's hobbies were a piece he had gotten from his mother. His most favourite activity was reading fantasy books with a good cup of tea.

That sophisticated personality clashed terribly with the way he looked. His pale blond hair, which he wore in messy spikes, was highlighted with or completely dyed in the strangest colours whenever he felt like it. That wasn't all too often, but whenever he had a creative mood, there would be red, green, purple, blue or teal strands in his hair.  
He liked to wear ripped jeans, studded accessories, band shirts and basically everything any parent would disapprove of with all their being. Both his ears were pierced twice in the earlobe, and he liked to wear black or steel earrings. He listened to the heaviest kind of music, and wouldn't admit openly that he could enjoy a good piece of classical music.

This way of dressing drew quite a deal of nasty comments, but usually the only things his classmates picked on were his eyebrows. They were… quite a bit larger than the average size, though Arthur didn't really see the problem. He had tried plucking and trimming them, but it gave him more trouble than it solved. He just ignored anything people said about him anyway.

Arthur ran into his sister when he went to the kitchen for breakfast.  
"Good morning." they greeted each other. They sat down at the kitchen table with their meals.

"Have you met the new neighbours from across the street yet?" Rose asked.

"No I haven't." Was the answer. "Have you?"

"I didn't meet them exactly but I heard of them. They say their old house burned down, can you believe it? They seem to be nice people to me, but they don't go out often, do they?"

"I suppose so."

"Their sons should be about your age…" Rose stared.

Arthur didn't really like were this was going.

"Maybe you should go hang out with them! You're always just sitting here and reading all the time. Makes me wonder if you even have friends!"

Arthur frowned at the last comment but tried not to feel too insulted. It was true. "I guess I could introduce myself…" He sighed. He didn't feel like getting to know any of them at all. Everyone was the same anyway. People picked on him, laughed at him and were just being generally unpleasant. Why would it be any different with the weirdoes across the street?

He spent his day reading, as usual. He occasionally thought about what he actually knew about the new family across the street. He had never seen any of them outside, especially not during daytime.

When the evening came, he dressed up into his jogging attire. Besides reading, Arthur also had a habit of running in the evening. He needed some exercise to stay healthy, and spending the day reading wasn't exercise.

That evening, like any other, he left the house in his running shoes and exercise clothes. He ran out of his street and past the new neighbours' house, blissfully unaware that he was being watched from above.

Alfred was sitting on the roof. He liked sitting on the roof as it made him feel free and it was silent and he could watch the stars. He also liked not being around his hooligan of a brother around full moons. Lately, rather than watching stars, he had started watching the guy that ran by his home every night. Something about the boy intrigued him and he found himself awaiting his return each night.

There he was. Alfred immediately sat up as soon as he saw the boy leaving his house. Of course he was none the wiser. Alfred decided to follow him for a bit. In a totally non-stalkerish way, of course.

Being a vampire, he could easily jump from roof to roof without making much noise. Alfred being Alfred however, he soon got distracted by basically anything around him that moved or didn't move. Not watching where he was going Alfred almost crashed into a chimney, causing a lot of noise in his attempt to dodge at the last moment. "Shiiizzle!" He squeaked, quickly ducking behind the hated chimney as to be out of the other boy's sight.  
For a short while, there was no sound to hear besides one of the few cars still driving around in the neighbourhood.

"I can still see you, you know…" A previously unknown voice came from below. It was quite unexpectedly, and it made Alfred's un-dead heart jump. Oh, great. His voice sounded very nice too.  
He waited for a few seconds before he stood up straight and came out of his hiding place.  
"Hehe…" The clumsy vampire laughed, scratching the back of his head. He really had no idea what to say, so he just…stood there.

"Just what do you think you are doing on that roof? Can't you see that's dangerous you git?" The boy yelled at him.

Alfred didn't quite understand what he meant with that last word, but it was quite clear he wanted him off the roof. Now that he'd caught him anyway, this was just the perfect opportunity to introduce himself!

With a big grin plastered to his face Alfred jumped off the building in one big leap, landing steadily on his feet.

"Hey! I'm Alfred, nice to meet ya!" He stuck out his hand to the rather shocked teenager in front of him.

"H-How did you…" The boy began, "Are you okay!?"

"Of course!" Alfred smiled when he grabbed his hand.

Arthur frowned at the approach but shook his hand anyway.

"Wait, you're the new kid from across the street, aren't you?" He asked.

"Yup! So, what's your name?" Alfred asked.

"Arthur." Arthur said, clearly suspicious in every possible way. "Now that I know a little more about you, I have to ask you one thing:"

"Ask away." Alfred said, the smile still plastered onto his face.

"Why on earth were you following me?"

Alfred's bright smile instantly disappeared when he realised he might have looked just a bit like a stalker just now. "I wasn't following you. I was…well, erm. I was just…enjoying the view." He said awkwardly.

Arthur raised one of his large eyebrows at the lad. He wasn't sure whether to take that comment the normal or the strange was. He certainly hoped Alfred hadn't meant him with his 'view'.

Either way, Alfred seemed a bit strange to him. He hadn't seen him in the nearly six months had had lived in the street, he didn't go to school, apparently, and now he was suddenly right here after having just jumped off a roof. Speaking of strange.  
Compared to Alfred, Arthurs punk-style including occasionally green hair seemed completely normal. He didn't quite know what it was, but there were a few things that made Alfred a strange young man. But strange was by no means bad.

"Nice earrings." Alfred said at the lack of anything better to say. "Eric has got a bunch of those things in his ears too, but I've never seen him wearing rings. He wears studs and skulls."

"Eric?"

"My brother. Real pain. Likes to play punk rock and metal when I'm still asleep."

"Sounds like he has a good taste in music."

"Dude, you're kidding."

"No, I'm not."

"You have to be. I don't know what you need to be high on to enjoy that."

"Nothing. I'm perfectly clean and I still enjoy all kinds of metal."

"Of course you are. Wait, how old are you?"

"Fifteen. Sixteen in a month. You?"

"Seventeen and a half." Alfred responded. He wasn't lying. In a way. It was his age when he died a long time ago.

The conversation went on long after that. Alfred could hardly believe that the bloke he had spent months looking at from a distance with no idea how to actually approach him was now talking to him in the street as though they had known each other for years.

It was a strange feeling to Arthur too. Making friends had never been his talent and he usually didn't trust anyone. But Alfred…he just had that hyper, childish air around him that covered the age difference and said he could be trusted. He was annoying and his sentences had neither a beginning nor an end, but at the same time, he was fun.

They went on for longer than either had initially thought they would. It seemed as though they had forgotten time, until a reflexive glance at his watch kicked Arthur back into reality. "Oh, bloody-! It's this late already?" They headed into the direction of their street again.

"Huh?" Alfred asked, a bit disappointed that the conversation had been cut off so suddenly.

"I have to head home before Rose gets worried."

"Rose?"

"My sister. And guardian until I turn eighteen in two years and a month."

"You've only got a sister? Oh, that sounds so relaxed!"

"Relaxed?! I wish! All she does is nagging."

"Still sounds better than a brother who kicks me through every corner of the house. He's a demon!"

"So is my sister once a month for six days."

Alfred immediately toned down at that comment. "Dude, that's nasty."

Luckily, Arthur seemed very keen on changing the subject. "Okay, enough about that. Seems we're back."

"So, I'll see you tomorrow?" Alfred asked, inviting himself for Arthur's company a second time.

"Sure. Same time, in front of my house?"

"Sure."

Arthur smiled, turned around and went back to his house. He stopped in his tracks a few steps away and turned back. "And Alfred."

"Yes?"

"Please don't stalk me from a roof again. Two feet on solid ground will do."

"Yeah. Yeah. See you later!" As soon as he was sure Arthur was out of sight, he made a jump and cheered. "Wohoo! Yes. I'm so good." Smug and grinning like that, he went back home. Yeah. He had a date with Arthur. Okay, it wasn't exactly a date, but he liked to think of it as such. Awesome! He had a date. He had a date.

"What the fuck are you grinning about, weirdo?" Eric barked when he spotted his brother all happy.

Alfred didn't let his brother spoil his mood this time. He had a date with Arthur. "Nothing, doggy."

"Cool it, Batsy."

"Can't hear you, you nasty bag fleas." Alfred covered his ears and sang an annoying tune as he went upstairs.

* * *

Since the event the previous night, Tennant had come back to his senses a little. Overnight, he had overcome the shock and was now able to think straight again.  
He had spent his night and day behind his laptop, slept throughout the day and then got behind his laptop in the early evening again, searching anything he could find on the family next door.  
He couldn't find anything using their family name as there were many called Jones, but as soon as he started using keywords like 'vampires', 'monsters', 'haunted' and 'fire', he got pages of short, seemingly insignificant newspaper articles. Those articles, however told him every bit of history he needed on the family.

The articles mentioned roughly the same thing every time: A house that was believed to be haunted or its inhabitants just hated by the population was burned down, clearly by someone's hand, no arrests, no investigation. The notion of the family fleeing after the fire was a tell-tale sign. It was them.

It appeared they had lived in many different places all over the UK for at least a hundred years, but the notions of a 'dog' were only present from the last fifteen years.

There was more. Some articles would mention the family name, but it was different every time. They had lived using the names Vargas, Black, Smith, Williams, and now Jones. The father's actual name, Tennant found out, was Beilschmidt. German. He had had his suspicions about that when he first heard the man's accent, but now it was confirmed.

Then there were the three sons. They were adopted, no doubt. They bore absolutely no resemblance to each other or their parents. The oddest one out in the full picture being Eric. He was the only one who looked like he had ever seen sunlight. And more than just a little sunlight.

Searching a little more into his background brought Tennant to a very suspicious case. Two people being imprisoned for abandoning their baby. The three-months-old infant, actually called Juan Pérez Moreno, was never found.  
Of course they had abandoned the little monster when they found out it was a werewolf. Who would want a werewolf?! And the Joneses had found him, of course.

"I have to call the police. Right now." Mr Tennant told himself. He picked up the receiver and dialled the number of the police station.  
Then a thought struck his mind. He didn't dial the last number anymore and hung up. He grabbed his small mirror from the table again and talked to the reflection. "You're not in a good state yet. They'll think you're a madman if you call right now. Also, those monsters sleep during daytime. I'd be pointless to have the police pay them a visit first thing in the morning."  
When he considered that, he decided to call the day after, in the evening. And he had to sleep first. He had to be ready.

* * *

That very same evening, when Arthur came back from his jogging, he was greeted by Alfred. "Hey, Arthur." He said after having suddenly appeared behind the shorter blonde.

"Whah! Alfred! You startled me." He said, taking a deep sigh.

"Ah. Sorry. I tend to do that sometimes."

"Okaaay."

There was a long silence. Neither actually knew what to say, even though Alfred rarely kept his mouth shut. "Sooo, walk around the block?"

"Sure. Or a little further than that." Alfred suggested. When he looked back, Arthur's eyes seemed to shine a little more than they had done before.

"Sure." Arthur said with a smile, and the two headed off.

"You would not believe-" Alfred started, but Arthur cut him off.

"Hold on. I've got things to ask you as well. You've been talking the entire time yesterday, so now it's my turn to ask about."

"Course. Fire away."

"Where did you live before you moved here?"

Alfred didn't really feel like going there, but he answered anyway. "Sheffield. Nice place but you would not believe how scary the people are there! I mean, really."

"They say it's full of vampires there." Arthur said with a bit of a sneaky tone Alfred luckily didn't notice.

"Yeah…Heh. They say that. I think it's a load of bull. But they are really scary."

"Vampires?"

"Nah. The folks living there."

"Like you're one to talk." Arthur responded sceptically.

"Nah, I'm just weird- Hey! What do you mean by that?"

"You stalk people from rooftops and then jump down with any form of injury. That's what I would call a tad scary."

Alfred grinned. "Maybe I'm just a trained acrobat." He said jokingly and hung an arm around Arthur's shoulder.  
The reaction he got from that was a little different from what he had hoped, though. Arthur stepped aside quickly as though the touch had burned him. Even so, his tone turned suddenly cold. "I'd rather you didn't do that again."

Alfred hadn't at all expected that. No one had even made a problem of him doing that, even a hundred years before! "I was just-"

"I think it's unpleasant." He said, clearly not comfortable anymore.

Confused and not to mention disappointed, Alfred hummed and looked away. Not the faintest idea of what objection someone could have to an arm around the shoulders would enter his mind, but okay. If Arthur said he didn't like it, he didn't like it. It was as simple as that, and if he didn't want to piss him off, he'd just have to refrain from making any physical contact or making remarks about it. Which was, to Alfred, quite a difficult task. It was so tempting to tease him with his bubble of personal space. "Okay. Dude, relax."

Arthur rolled his eyes.

"You can bark as badly as Eric." Alfred mumbled.

"Yes, about him: what is he doing all night? I saw him leaving once around eleven in the evening and returning the next morning when I had just woken up."

"Yeah, two chances: he's either been at work or been out trying to pick up girls from any local pub."

Arthur raised his eyebrow, clearly being sceptical about that last bit. "Has he ever had any luck?"

"No. He hasn't got a snowball's chance in hell. I mean, look at the guy."

"I have." Arthur snorted. "Let's just say he's not my type."

Alfred sniggered. "Nah, you'd be the craziest couple ever. Yuck. Have you ever had a girlfriend?"

There was a short silence in which Arthur seemed to think about how to answer. "Used to." He answered cautiously.

"Oh. What's her name?"

Again, Arthur took a moment to think before answering. "Francis." He said, a bit annoyed.

"Frances? Hm. What happened?"

"Constant groping in public and flirting with other guys and girls to get more attention from me. Let's just say I wasn't exactly fond of those attention-seeking tactics."

"Ow. That sucks."

"Not the kind of word I would choose, but quite accurate. What about you? Have you ever had a girlfriend?"

"No." He kept it at that. Seeing the fact that that was basically the reason he had gotten killed in the first place, it seemed like a better idea to keep it to himself.

The two had a good time just talking and getting to know each other a little. Time seemed to go by at the speed of light when having fun since they were back in their own street again long before they wanted to be.

* * *

Indeed, just as planned, there were three police officers in front of the door of the Jones residence. It was nine in the evening, not that long after they had all woken up. The men in the blue uniforms knocked on the door. "Police! Open the door!" One commanded.

"Yes, yes, yes." They softly heard from the other side of the door. "Coming." Seconds later, Vanessa opened the door.

The Policemen gaped at the skinny, pale appearance of the woman. Not to mention her eyes that lay deep in her sockets and the long black dress that made her look like Morticia from the Addams Family.

The tallest of the men cleared his throat. "Good evening, ma'am. We have received the concerning news that you are keeping a wolf as pet. We have got a warrant to search your house." He said sternly and waved the paper in front of Vanessa.

Vanessa took the sheet of paper and quickly read it. "Oh, my." She said. "Come in, gentlemen." She invited them.

"Start the search right away." The man commanded, and his colleagues went upstairs instantly.

Vanessa shook her head. It seemed night time wasn't all that safe to let Eric out after all. If those men would find anything, how would she talk her boy out of trouble?

* * *

When Alfred wanted to go back home, he sensed something unusual. There were more people in his house then there were supposed to be.

"Alfred, what's wro- What are the coppers doing in your house?"

"I don't know." Alfred answered. He didn't have the slightest clue why they were there, but he did know that he didn't like it one bit. Had something happened? The last time they had had police at their house, it was because Eric had bitten someone and they had gone through great lengths to fake having him put down. And not even a month after that, their house had gone up in flames. Again. It wasn't too surprising that Alfred didn't know what he should do.

Arthur did, though. He suddenly seemed very concerned, despite the cool impression he had made all the time up until now. "Al? Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." He lied in a whisper.

"I think it's better if you didn't interrupt now. It'll save you the trouble."

"I guess." Alfred again whispered, again not taking his eyes off the figures inside.

Arthur grabbed him by the wrist and dragged him along around the corner. "Let's go for another stroll, shall we?" He stated rather than suggested.

Half a street away, Alfred seemed to snap out of it. "Wow, dude. This is a bit freaky."

"You've had coppers over before, haven't you?"

"Yeah, a few times." He took a deep breath to calm himself down. It was just now that he noticed that Arthur looked rather concerned despite his cool-headed reaction. And that Arthur's hand was still pretty much on his. The vampire looked down at their hands and then smiled teasingly at Arthur. "And you said you didn't like being touched." He grinned, which earned him a glare and a smack to the side of the head.

"Oh, don't be ridiculous." Arthur retorted and quickly withdrew his hand.

"Arthur held my hand." Alfred teased with a wide grin.

"Oh, don't pretend you enjoyed it." Arthur sneered back.

* * *

Of course, the policemen couldn't find anything that suggested the presence of a wolf. While the men in uniform where upstairs, Vanessa had carefully removed all shed hairs from Eric's fur from the carpet downstairs. They wouldn't find any evidence.

Upstairs, they had had a not-so-friendly encounter with Eric, who would rather have rammed them out of his bedroom with his own hands. Fortunately for them, Ludwig had forbidden him to do so. It gave such a mess if he did.

Slightly disappointed, the policemen came to the conclusion there was no wolf to be found anywhere in the house. Not a dog, even. There were some spiked collars, but Eric had made it rather clear they were his.

The men in uniform had been shaken up by the bottles in the basement, but Eric had rather crankily and almost threateningly lied that they had that left from a Halloween party and were using it again this year. He afterwards rolled his brown eyes at how stupid they were for buying that. Ridiculous.

The police officers bade the family farewell, and quickly left again. After they were far out of the street, Alfred went back home.

The family sighed in relief as they all sat down in the living room. "That was a close call." Matthew sighed. "Has Tennant seen Eric last night and called the police?"

"It appears so." Ludwig said. "We should be even more careful from now on. So Eric: absolutely no more howling when you're still in the street."

"Tsk. Just because some asshole can't keep his ridiculously long nose out of my business?"

"Yes."

"I don't get it. Why don't you just tell him to stay the hell out of my way?"

Vanessa shut her eyes and shook her head. "We're not entirely normal, Eric. You're still young. You're only eighteen and you've still got a lot to learn. Your brothers have already lived their lives like this for a hundred and ten years. Your father and I even longer than that. You'll understand it with time."

Eric just grumbled. Slouched low on the couch, he muttered something about being the youngest and that it sucked. Sometimes, he felt left out since he was the only mortal in the household. Thanks to actually being alive, he was the only one who wasn't pale as a sheet.  
He glared at the floor just to avoid his mother's eyes.

"You were such a cute little thing when we found you. You were only a baby." Vanessa said dreamily. "A small, chubby, hairy baby in a basket, crying and howling at the full moon. So lonely."

Eric grumbled. "Mum, please." He didn't like being reminded of how 'cute' he used to be.

"You used to bite on your father's and Matthew's fingers when you got your first teeth." She scratched and tickled him softly behind the ear that was covered by his dyed-blonde hair. He leaned in a little to her fingers and relaxed at the touch to that relaxing spot. That was one of the things that reminded him of his wolf-side. That spot behind his ear that could tame him with just a small gentle scratch.

"By the way. Have you already made any friends?" Vanessa asked out of the blue.

"Yup." Eric said. "There are some nice chicks around here." That was the only thing that made up for being the odd one out in the family. Women.

Alfred interrupted him before he could say anything else. "Sure. There's this punker living across the street and he's really cool. Different from the punks from the seventies, but cool."

Matthew was the only one who couldn't give a confirming answer. He had barely even been outside the house since they had moved.

He sighed deeply as he headed out the door that evening. He always got calmer when taking a walk in the late evening, when the sun didn't harm him anymore.

Was he seriously the only one who hadn't made any friends yet? He hated being as shy as he was, but what could he do about it? He just was that way and despite all his previous attempts over the past 100-and-something years, he hadn't made any progress whatsoever.

~o~o~o~

Yes, I made Eric Spanish. I don't know what you think, but I think he's sexy. XD *shot for liking own OC*

**Please leave a review? **


	4. No man is an island

During the weeks after that, Alfred met up with Arthur at least six times a week.  
For the sake of trying to befriend someone, Matthew had gone with them a few times, much to his twin's dismay. It wasn't as though it made the slightest difference, though. Matthew was pretty much ignored every single time. It didn't surprise him in the slightest.  
On top of usually being ignored, it wasn't exactly rocket science to Matthew to figure out that Alfred had a crush the size of the United States on Arthur. Because of that simple fact and all the others combined, Matthew hardly got the chance to even talk to the younger punker.

It was a waste of time to meet up with Arthur, so Matthew let himself being left behind as the other two left. He'd just go for a walk on his own as he usually did. At least, that was his plan. Someone seemed to have other plans for him.

"Hey." That someone said right behind him.

Matthew nearly jumped into the air and bit away a yelp. He slowly turned around, looking straight into a pair of glaring green eyes. Matthew only stared with wide open eyes and an open mouth in amazement. He was one metre seventy-seven, exactly the same as Matthew.

"Aren't you one of the folks living on the corner there?"

Matthew discovered a mild accent in the teenager's English, but he couldn't quite figure out what language it was influenced by. He didn't dare to guess, but he thought it sounded funny. "Y-yes." The shy vampire stammered. "I'm Matthew. Nice to meet you."

The initially stern looking teenager smiled friendly. Or he tried to, at least. Because despite the corners of his lips curling up slightly, his eyes hardly changed. Matthew guessed they were just frozen in a frown. "Nice to meet you too. I'm Abel. I live right over there." He pointed past Matthew at a few houses up ahead.

"Oh. Why are you still outside at this time?"

"What about you?"

"Well…eh. I just wanted to have some time on my own."

"I just came back from gymnastics."

"Gymnastics?"

"Yeah. I've never seen you outside before. Have you ever even walked around the place since you got here?"

"No." Matthew had to admit. "I have hardly even been out of the street."

"Shame. Come on. I'll show you around." Abel said.

Matthew followed him, trying to pay attention to the neighbourhood. There wasn't really much, though. Outside the few streets were mainly farmland and hills as far as the eye could see. It was beautiful to see, but Matthew paid little attention to it. He much rather talked to Abel. He finally had someone to talk to!

"Before I forget to ask." Matthew changed the subject. "Where are you from exactly?"

Abel smiled. "It's the accent, uh? The Netherlands. I've lived in Belgium for a while too." He smiled.

"I lived in Yorkshire for a while, and basically everywhere around the UK."

"Moved a lot?"

"Yeah. Nice neighbourhoods are quite hard to find."

"Ah. In my case it was my mother finding herself a new husband who happened to live in Scotland." Abel shrugged, and Matthew thought he heard him whisper 'jerk', but he chose not to ask about it.

"How old were you when you got here?" Matthew asked.

"Twelve. Only three years ago."

"Wait, you're fifteen?!"

"Yeah. How old did you think I was?" Abel sniggered.

"Eighteen, or something. I thought we were the same age at least."

"And you're…?"

"Seventeen, almost eighteen."

Abel frowned. "Really? Geez, you really have a baby-face, you know."

"Wha-baby-face?!" Matthew was quite offended by that. He was almost 120 years old, for Pete's sake! And this underage boy said he had a baby-face?

"Yeah."

"Brat."

"Old man."

And then they laughed out loud.

They talked about all kinds of things. Along the way, Matthew got to know a lot about his new friend. That his parents got divorced over his father's occasional weed smoking, that he disliked his stepfather but never told anyone because he didn't want to spoil it for his mother, that he had a sister called Judithe and a younger brother called León, that he liked playing football and that he did gymnastics.

He found out that Judithe was in fact his elder twin sister. That was at least one thing they had in common. They had an older twin, and Matthew had to admit he'd trade Alfred for Judithe if he had the chance right away, going by the stories.

Half the time, Matthew got distracted by one extraordinary thing or another about Abel. By his dirty blonde hair that he had stuck straight up with undoubtedly huge amounts of hair gel. Matthew wondered how his hair had stayed that way even though the guy had just gotten out of the gym.  
Just seconds later, Matthew noticed the vertical scar on his forehead right above his right eyebrow. It looked like it was rather deep, but Matthew decided not to ask about it. For now.

"Are you always this open to strangers?" Matthew asked.

"Not really. Not at all, actually. You're the only one I talk so much to aside from my sister." All too soon they walked into their street again.  
"I guess I'd better go home before my mum starts spitting fire at me." Abel said in his very casual way.

Matthew sniggered. "I guess I'd better have a look if Eric hasn't killed Al yet."

"Let's meet again tomorrow, shall we? I'll drag Judithe along with me, if you don't mind."

"Oh, sure!" Matthew said quickly, which instantly made him wonder if that had sounded too eager.

"'kay. See ya." He ruffled Matthew's hair and went back home.

The vampire shook his head and combed his wavy hair back to normal with his fingers. Abel was actually quite nice. Really nice, even. Finally having friends was new to Matthew. That, and the fact he was actually nice. Had he mentioned nice to himself yet?

When he came back home, Vanessa instantly noticed he had been off for quite a long time. Even Alfred was back already. "Matthew? Where have you been for so long?" She asked concerned.

"I just found myself a friend." He responded, smiling.

"Oh, that's wonderful. You should invite them over." Vanessa was instantly cheered up. Matthew had a friend. That was for the first time in at least 100 years, her eldest son had a friend.

"Sure."

The next evening, Matthew met up with Abel again. This time, he had taken his twin sister along with him. She wasn't as scarily tall as her brother, and she looked sparkly and friendly. She wore a light blue dress with frilly purple sleeves. Her wavy blonde hair was a generous shoulder length and was held back with a purple diadem.

She didn't look like her brother at all, except for one thing: they had the same green eyes.

"Hey, Matty." Abel greeted. "Nice to see you again."

"Hi." Matty? Since when did he call him Matty?

The girl quickly interfered. "Hi, Matthew. I'm Judithe. Nice to meet you."

Matthew was slightly taken aback by her direct and energetic way of acting, but he calmed himself down with the thought that she was only being nice. "Nice to meet you too."

Matthew soon discovered that Judithe was indeed very kind, happy-go-lucky, and that she seemed to hit her brother over the head quite often for very little things. Abel appeared to like teasing his sister with all kinds of things, to which she responded by calling him her 'little baby brother'.  
"Who are you calling baby?! Look at yourself, tiny squirt!"

"I'm older!"

"Yeah, by ten minutes, you pushy little twit!"

And things went on in that quite amusing way. This could turn out very nicely for Matthew. Very nicely.

He finally had a reason to look forward to the next day again.

* * *

After having met up every day many weeks in a row, Abel, Judithe and Matthew had decided to go to the old playgrounds for once. There was no one there at this time and that it was a nice place to look at around sunset, according to Judithe. It didn't really matter where they went because Matthew always looked forward to seeing the twins again. They were fun. They made him feel almost human.

Matthew greeted the twins with a smile and the trio went to the playground. It indeed was old but it also had a somewhat cosy setting surrounded by bushes and trees like that. The for ages unused swings were a bit dirty, and the slide probably couldn't be used anymore. There was a pencil-shaped bench on the side, where they sat down.

As usual, the siblings talked a lot and as usual, the subjects really were all over the place. Some didn't make sense whatsoever.

Abel had good sense of humour, which was mostly aimed at himself. He was also good at imitating other people. He could do a perfect voice imitation of Arthur, which had Matthew laugh for minutes straight. But also Ronald Reagan, Noel Fielding, Alan Rickman, Jeremy Clarkson and even Prince Charles were common victims of the imitations with a twist. The combination of this with his Judithe's imitations of random strict sort of characters resulted in Matthew laughing more in an hour than he had done in the past hundred years.

When Matthew was sitting in between the two siblings, he felt a tiny bit ignored. "Why are you speaking Dutch?" He asked.

"Because that bit was a bro-sis thing." The two responded simultaneously.

"About what?"

"About how huggable he is." Judithe said teasingly and stuck out her tongue.

"I'm not your personal teddy bear, thank you very much." Abel retorted, but chuckled immediately after that. "She has some sort of huggable-factor-radar in her head, but I think it's broken." Abel mouthed to Matthew, purposely loud enough for Judithe to hear.

"Why is that?" Matthew asked, though he probably didn't want to know the answer.

"Because I think he's huggable." Judithe said, briefly smiling at Abel. "Don't worry, Matt. You're huggable too."

That was the cue one which the twins hugged each other, capturing Matthew right in between them. He yelped in surprise of being squashed between them like a teddy bear. At the same time, he could laugh about it when he was released again. Just to tease a little more, Abel also ruffled with hair. "Heh. Sorry, Matty." He said sniggering.

"So which one of us is more huggable?" The twins asked simultaneously.

Matthew sniggered and shook his head. These two were so weird, but so great to be around. He couldn't remember ever being this happy. For once he wasn't in the background, overlooked by everyone. "I don't know. I think you." He looked at Judithe.

"Whaaat?" Abel whined and pouted like a little child. "Why her and not meee?" He joked.

"Because you're bony and I don't want to risk a paper cut." Matthew answered, hardly able to hold back a laugh.

"Yeah, whatevs, Pudgy." Abel said, now more serious again and poked Matthew in the waist.

He yelped in a pitch so high he could slap himself for it.

"Wait." Abel smirked evilly. "You're ticklish?"

Matthew backed away a little. "No?"

Abel smirked wider and quickly pinched Matthew in the waist repeatedly. Poor Matthew was far too ticklish to his own liking and squirmed, yelped and tried to mutter a 'please stop!'. He failed ultimately.

The twins found this reaction very amusing, and they made a silent agreement to use this foul weapon more often.

* * *

For a change, Arthur had invited Alfred over to his house to meet up with his sister as well. He just hoped Rose wouldn't raise an eyebrow and kick the hyper weirdo out. Luckily, that didn't happen. She even seemed to think Alfred was a welcome break from Arthur's stiff and strict nature.

Although that bit of him seemed to cease a little when he was at home. Suddenly, Arthur laughed whenever he wanted, which was actually quite often for someone with the reputation of being cranky, and he suddenly didn't mind an arm around his shoulder anymore. He even started initiating it himself, though he probably didn't even realise it himself.

It started off with a smack against the shoulder after a teasing comment, and after that Arthur didn't seem like his normal self when in public anymore. He even jokingly threatened to sit on Alfred's lap at some point, which took a lot of Alfred's self control not to take as a challenge.  
He probably would have dared him to do it if it weren't for Rose standing in the doorway. When she was in the kitchen, Alfred suddenly noticed something about Arthur's ears. They had more piercings than he remembered! And it frightened him a little.

"Uhm, Arthur?"

"Yes?"

"When did you get…" He gestured towards the extra studs in Arthur's ears. "Those done?"

Arthur smiled. "Oh, you noticed. I had them done yesterday right after school." He played with the four new studs. On either side, there were now three rings in the earlobe and a helix piercing.

Alfred shuddered. Piercings and needles in general always gave him the shivers. Needles and ghosts. Those were the only thing he was scared of. And wooden stakes when held by a madman.  
But those piercings! Yikes! There was more metal than actual ear!

Alfred carefully poked against one of the studs and shivered again while Arthur thought his kicked puppy-expression was very amusing.

"Doesn't that hurt?" Alfred asked.

"These did." He pointed at the ones high in his ear. "A little. I didn't feel a bit of the other six."

Alfred squirmed, which was quite a motivation for Arthur to go on with his teasing. He would have if Rose hadn't come back. "Arthur, that's about enough. You don't want to scare him to death."

Like that was possible. Newsflash: He wasn't alive to begin with. "I'm not scared of anything." Alfred defended his reputation, but Arthur was very keen on proving him wrong.  
"And then the piercer holds that cold needle to your skin and then _pushes_ it all the way through-"

"Cut it out! Cut it out! Cut it ooouuut!" Alfred yelped, covering his ears.

Arthur laughed loudly and Rose just shook her head before going back to the kitchen.

"Calm down, Alfred. I was just teasing." Arthur apologised before patting his head.

"Not funny, dude." Alfred was still shivering and Arthur hung on his shoulder.

"You know, Al." He poked against the right corner of the vampire's bottom lip. "I think a piercing right there would look great on you."

Alfred immediately shot to the far end of the couch. "Dude, stop it!" He pleaded, and Arthur couldn't remember ever getting such a great reaction.

"You know." Rose had put away the dishes and came back into the living room. "I dread the day he turns sixteen. God knows what he'll have pierced when he is allowed to." She frowned at her little brother, who just scoffed. "That's my busyness, isn't it?"

"I'm still your guardian until you're eighteen. Twenty-one if you keep misbehaving like this. You're still only fifteen."

"For a few more weeks." Arthur responded in a sly tone, as though to provoke his sister, and Alfred slowly backed away further to the far end of the couch. So much tension.

* * *

He had to go back home not much later, though. Arthur had to go to bed and Alfred, Ludwig, Eric and Matthew had something to discuss while Vanessa was out for a walk on the cemetery.

"You all know what day it is in exactly four weeks." Ludwig started.

"Yeah. Mum's deathday." Eric said.

"200th Deathday." Alfred corrected.

"Correct." Ludwich continued. "Next week is exactly 200 years after your mother died, and I wanted to give her memorable deathday. I'll need your help for that. I want to invite everyone in the street to the party. Your mother likes crowds and parties, so this seems like the perfect chance."

"Cool!" Eric said. "Let me do the music!" He got excited already.

"Ugh. With your horrible music? No!" Alfred protested.

"What was that?"

"Guys!" Ludwig boomed. "Cool it! Focus. Eric will do the music, Al, you'll take care of the invitations. Matt and I will do the decorations and food. Got it?"

"Yup!"

"Yes."

"Yeah."

"One more thing:" Ludwig had to add. "No fighting. If you get into a fight I will hang you in full sunlight for one full day. By your ears."

Matthew and Alfred yelped in fear but Eric only laughed. "Aww. Is your skin so sensitive you'll get sunburned? Ahahaha!"

"Eric." Ludwig boomed. "If you pick a fight you're not allowed to go out and flirt with girls for three months."

"What? No chick-hunting for three months?! That's cruel, dad!"

* * *

At that same time, when most sane people slept, Arthur was wide awake. He wasn't supposed to be, but he couldn't bring himself to sleep. There was too much going on in his head.

He kicked his blankets away once again. His head was such a mess he couldn't take it anymore. He leapt out of bed and went to the room next to his: Rose's room. She would know what to do. He carefully shut the door behind him, without waking his sister up.

He could still go back now.  
Maybe he should.  
But he needed her.  
But he could also wait.  
But he needed her right now.

When he was close enough, he tried to get her attention. "Rose. Wake up." He gently pushed her shoulder, causing her to wake up. She groaned softly and opened one eye. "Arthur? What's wrong?" She was nearly instantly awake and switched on the light on her nightstand. She sat up and looked at her younger brother. "Come on. Sit down and tell me what's wrong."

Hesitantly and slightly depressed, Arthur sat down right next to her. He didn't know where to start. Or how to start. He even wondered for a brief moment why he was there anyway. "Rose, I think I-" It felt so strange to say it. "I think I'm in love." He said, sounding like he couldn't believe it.

"Oh, but that's nice, Arthur!" Rose exclaimed. "What is bothering you so much then?"

"With a bloke." Arthur added. Damn. Why was his voice shaking so much all of a sudden? He had told himself so many times to say it with confidence. He let his head hang, looking at the ground and trying his best not to look up at Rose. What would she say? He waited for a reaction.

She didn't say anything. Not a word. No change in her expression. Not even a gasp.

Nothing.

Arthur bit hard on his teeth, trying his to suppress the rage caused by pure powerlessness. He had hoped for some kind of reaction. Even if she would have started shouting, it still would have been better than no reaction at all!

"Calm down, I won't kill you." She defended herself, hugging him and leaning her head against his. "Now. What's the biggest thing that's bothering you at the moment?"

"It's so…confusing. I don't know. This is something they don't teach at school. What would he think if he got to know it?"

"I don't know. It's hard to tell when I don't even know who your crush is. I mean, if it's that Dutch guy from a few houses ahead-" She hinted.

"Oh, hell no!" Arthur shouted, shivering at the mere thought of Abel. "It's Alfred." Arthur mumbled, looking away and waiting for his sister to show a load of pity the size of Mount Everest.

Against all his expectations, though, Rose laughed. Hard. "Alfred? Are you serious?" She put her hand loosely in front of her mouth.

"What? What's so funny?" Arthur sneered.

"Nothing. Oh, my. Opposites really do attract."

"What do you mean by that?" Arthur asked, now getting annoyed instead of nervous.

"Nothing." Rose giggled.

"Sometimes I really feel the urge to bloody hit you with a brolly." Arthur deadpanned.

"See? You're so different from that happy sweetheart."

"You're horrible!" Arthur shouted. He spontaneously attacked her with pinches and tickles to the waist which she was very sensitive to. She squealed, laughed and at one point even fell over.

"But really, Arthy." Rose started, crawling back up after her defeat. "How long have you known this about yourself?"

"Longer than you think."

"How long. A month?"

"I was thirteen, hello! Longer than a month."

"And you still got together with Frances despite knowing you're gay?" She questioned.

"Uhm. Rose? That's Francis. With an 'i'."

"Oh. Then what's so confusing now?"

Oh, shit. There was the point he had to start on details. "Well, I got together with him so…naturally. It went so automatically, and I can't see than happening now. Francis and I started dating after that party when we were fourteen."

"The time you said you got a little bit tipsy, and I hoped you wouldn't die of alcohol poisoning?"

"Yeah, that time."

"When you called me crying, saying you were drunk and apologising over and over for…being drunk?"

"Stop it! It's not funny!"

"Wait, you got together how exactly?"

Arthur sighed. "Him kissing me while dancing." He deadpanned. Painful memory. Very painful memory, and Rose, once again, laughed until she almost choked.

~o~o~o~

Deathday, birthday, get it? *shot*

I'm an idiot. Okay.

**Please review?**


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